Background To expand our understanding of social support and mental health, we introduce a measure of social support barriers and investigate the relationship between these barriers, social support, mental health and gender in survivors of the terrorist attack on Utøya Island, Norway. Methods Survivors (N=285) were interviewed face to face. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the latent factor structure of the Social Support Barriers Scale and perceived social support (FSSQ), and linear regression analyses to investigate the associations between social support variables and mental health (PTSD-RI and HSCL-8). Results The CFA indicated that social support barriers and perceived social support were two separable latent constructs. Social support barriers were highly associated with posttraumatic stress reactions (adjusted regression coefficient = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.29 – 0.47. p < 0.001) as well as with psychological distress (adjusted regression coefficient = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.26 – 0.43, p < 0.001). In contrast, neither perceived social support nor gender was associated with mental health after adjustment for barriers. Limitations Most analyses were based on cross-sectional data. This is the first study to use a quantitative measure of social support barriers. Conclusion Social support barriers may be a new opening to understanding the relationship between social support and mental health and may have a role in explaining why women are at increased risk for mental health problems. Clinicians should explore not only perceived social support but also barriers to making use of these resources when consulting young people facing major life adversities.

This article presents the findings of a study on child–parent interaction during suspicion of child sexual abuse as seen from the children’s point of view. Study methods followed the principles of grounded theory approaches. Data were drawn from research interviews and child abuse assessment interviews with thirteen children referred to the child protection services because of suspected child sexual abuse. During analysis the core concept of Interactive Regulated Participation was constructed on the basis of the following main categories developed from the children’s narratives: conversations on suspicion, receiving information, contributing in decision-making, sharing feelings and thoughts, and engaging in conversations on meaning-making. These categories help us understand the difficult situation children find themselves in when a suspicion of child sexual abuse is raised, and help us explore and support child–parent interaction in this specific situation. Attention to variations in child–parent interaction may help professionals and parents to focus on children’s opportunities to talk about possible abuse as well as on the children’s situation in the midst of child sexual abuse allegations.

Subjective experiences of good or bad luck appear to depend upon downward or upward comparisons with close counterfactuals. People exposed to disasters have both options: they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, but their fate could in many cases have been worse; so in a sense, they are unlucky victims, but lucky survivors. Interviews with 85 Norwegian tourists 9-11 months after they had been exposed to the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia showed good luck to be a pivotal theme in a majority of the narratives. Nobody claimed they had been unfortunate or unlucky. Moreover, downward counterfactual thoughts and downward comparisons with others occurred ten times more often than upward counterfactuals and upward comparisons. In a follow-up two years later, 95% answered they had been lucky. A contextual analysis revealed several facets of luck, including its relation to gratitude, guilt, and supernatural beliefs.

In this presentation results from a longitudinal study examining mental health problems of unaccompanied asylum seeking children arriving in Norway before the age of 16 will be presented. Seventy-five minors aged 10-17 years (83 % boys) were first assessed 6 months, and later 2 years after arrival. Participants originated from 12 different countries; most from Afghanistan (51 %). The youth were assessed for severe life events, symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSD), depression, anxiety and internalizing/ externalizing symptoms. At the initial assessment 54% scored above clinical cutoff on PTSD, 30% on anxiety, and 20% on depressive symptoms. Results indicate also that many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have experienced not only war-related traumas but several other severe life adversities as well. Two years later there is very little change in the mean scores, but there were considerable individual differences. This shows that unaccompanied minors continue to be an extremely vulnerable group and many of them are at risk of developing long-lasting psychological problems. However many youth do seem to be resilient and possible pathways to recovery will be discussed.